My top ten favorite books which I read ever (so far)

[w1k0]

speakingtohe,

You amused me with your infinite loop (“that one, and that one, no, no, not that one”). Thank you.

Sometimes it’s easier to deal with the real objects than with the ideas. When I started to think about this task it seemed to me impossible to close the list at ten books. Then I inspected my shelves carefully and I put about twenty books on the floor. Next I sorted these books rejecting a few ones and closing the list at fifteen. Finally I sorted them once again and divided them into two groups: ten which I love and five which I like. If your books are the files on the drive you may copy your favorite books to some folder, then remove some of them, and finally select top ten or so favorite ones.

kennyc,

“Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.” – Dalai Lama XIV

***

You broke the rules. Well done!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by w1k0

speakingtohe,

You amused me with your infinite loop (“that one, and that one, no, no, not that one”). Thank you.

Sometimes it’s easier to deal with the real objects than with the ideas. When I started to think about this task it seemed to me impossible to close the list at ten books. Then I inspected my shelves carefully and I put about twenty books on the floor. Next I sorted these books rejecting a few ones and closing the list at fifteen. Finally I sorted them once again and divided them into two groups: ten which I love and five which I like. If your books are the files on the drive you may copy your favorite books to some folder, then remove some of them, and finally select top ten or so favorite ones.

kennyc,

“Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.” – Dalai Lama XIV

***

You broke the rules. Well done!

Yes, I note that in your list you followed the llama as well.

[Bilbo1967]

I've responded to a number of similar threads and I have no doubt this response will differ from my previous ones, but, here goes;

John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
Bertrand Russell - History of Western Philosophy
George Macdonald-Fraser - the Flashman series
Iain Banks - Crow Road (and all his other novels)
Christopher Brookmyre - The Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (and all his other novels)
Carl Hiaasen - Sick Puppy (and all...you know)
P. G. Wodehouse - Any Jeeves and Wooster novel
Stephen Ambrose - Undaunted Courage
Robert Hughes - Fatal Shore
F. Paul Wilson - Repairman Jack Series

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Oh come on, go for it!

Nope. Can't do it. I started reading at the age of 3 and have read too many excellent books in the last 60 years. And my preferred reading materials have changed as well. At 8 I loved Louis L'Amour the best when I wasn't busy reading comics. At 10, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Shakespeare of all things. From about 14 to 18 it was Leon Uris and Taylor Caudwell etc. and Beatle magazines Next it was the Harlequins. Then it was the tech books and magazines. Then back to SF and now Mysteries and Fantasy.

Lot of books that I remember well, I didn't actually enjoy reading that much. A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist both seemed a bit painful in parts and I had nightmares about Little Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard (Grimm's fairy tales). Catcher in the Rye was fascinating, but to close to life as I knew it.

My favorite books are the ones I haven't read yet, that I am anticipating reading. Especially if by an author I love. I can get quite euphoric and have almost drooled in anticipation of reading an unread backlist book by a favorite author. How uncool is that

Helen

[Catlady]

I can say without hesitation that my all-time favorite book is Gone with the Wind. Number two is The Once and Future King. Beyond those two, I can't say with any certainty.

[piper28]

In no particular order, and I'm cheating by including some series instead of trying to single out a book from the series:

1) Aubrey/Maturn series, Patrick O'Brian
2) The Empire Trilogy, Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
3) The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
4) The Icarus Hunt, Timothy Zahn
5) Startide Rising, David Brin
6) Dead Beat, Jim Butcher
7) Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
8) The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
9) A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin
10) The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
11) The Mysterious Island, Jules Verne

I'll add one more that's not necessarily in quite the same league as the others, but I found very compelling in it's own way, and definitely heat a note in my that caused it to become an immediate favorite:

12) Quarter Share, Nathan Lowell

[jersysman]

Can't give a top ten as that is ever changing depending on my mood. What I will give though is a few all-time favorites.

The Three Musketeers
Pride and Prejudice
Oliver Twist
Gone With the Wind

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

I've responded to a number of similar threads and I have no doubt this response will differ from my previous ones, but, here goes;

John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
Bertrand Russell - History of Western Philosophy
George Macdonald-Fraser - the Flashman series
Iain Banks - Crow Road (and all his other novels)
Christopher Brookmyre - The Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (and all his other novels)
Carl Hiaasen - Sick Puppy (and all...you know)
P. G. Wodehouse - Any Jeeves and Wooster novel
Stephen Ambrose - Undaunted Courage
Robert Hughes - Fatal Shore
F. Paul Wilson - Repairman Jack Series

I'm working on my list but Bilbo1967, I can guarantee the Flashman series will be on it.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by cassidym

I'm working on my list but Bilbo1967, I can guarantee the Flashman series will be on it.

It should be on everyone's list!

[Ninjalawyer]

In no particular order:

1. The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
2. Dune - Frank Herbert
3. 1984 - George Orwell
4. Animal Farm - George Orwell
5. The Better Angels of our Nature - Stephen Pinker
6. Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
7. A Canticle for Leibowitz
8. Inferno - Dante Alighieri
9. On Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins
10. Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons (a bit of a cheat, but they were written as one book)

[MickeyC]

Here's mine (subject to change):

George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman at the Charge (and all the others in the Flashman series)
Tom Clancy: Red Storm Rising (Other early Clancy books as well)
Douglas Adams: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Stephen King : The Stand
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
Bill Bryson: The Mother Tongue (and just about every other Bryson book as well)
Richard Dawkins: The Greatest Show on Earth
Michio Kaku: Einstein’s Cosmos
Michael Crichton: Jurassic Park (and all his others)
Cormac McCarthy: The Road

[MeSue]

For now:
The Bible
Lord of the Rings trilogy - JRR Tolkien
Narnia series - CS Lewis
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - Douglas Adams
Life Expectancy - Dean Koontz
Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz
A Dog's Journey - W. Bruce Cameron
The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak
I Am the Messenger - Marcus Zusak
Hunger Games series - Suzanne Collins
Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls
NOS4A2 - Joe Hill

A lot of these are because they are in my recent reading history. I don't remember books well a few weeks after I've read them. And I am still catching up on reading many of the classics since they were not required reading at the school I went to.

[Pulpmeister]

Interesting range here. My selection is based on those I've re-read most (but no doubt I can think of others as well--I've read most of Agatha Christie many times since I started reading them in the 60s0

1. Great Expectations
2. Pride and Prejudice (that basically covers my 19th C authors)
3: Wreckers Must Breathe, Hammond Innes
4: The Snow Tiger, Desmond Bagley (story involves, among many other things, an avalanche in New Zealand)
I think of Asimov as primarily a short-story man, since I'm not that fond of his final rather long-winded volumes, so I'll run with
5: I, Robot, linked short stories. The movie was a travesty of the book. Asimov is still turning over in his grave.
6: Hiassen, Skinny Dip (don't ask me why this one above others, I don't know myself)
7: Bryson, Neither Here nor There, OR Bill Bryson Down Under. Tossup. I'm an Aussie and his take on Oz is spot-on and very funny.
8: Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Still the most readable book on the subject, all 1,500 pages of it. I've read it three or four times since the 60s, always right through, no stops and starts.
9: Death of a Lake, Arthur Upfield. OR An Author Bites the Dust, also Upfield. The first is set on a station in outback NSW during the most ferocious heatwave in NSW history (over 120 degrees in the shade, and it really happened, Upfield exerienced it himself in exactly that place). Even if you don't like whodunits, the description of its effect on people and animals as a shallow lake vanishes in days is very powerful. An Author Bites the Dust on the other hand is a rather biting satire on the "Literary Fiction" v "Popular Fiction" literary snobbery world of Victoria in the 1950s, and Upfield puts himself in as Clarence B Bagshott... I've read both several times, including recently.
And finally a wild card:
10: Men Martians and Machines by Eric Frank Russell. Well before Star Trek, it has a motley crew of humans, aliens and a robot going boldly where no man has gone before, in four linked novelettes. Humour, sense off wonder, well-worked out truly alien worlds. My copy is a hardback which has survived any number of readings.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by cassidym

Here's mine (subject to change):

George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman at the Charge (and all the others in the Flashman series)
Tom Clancy: Red Storm Rising (Other early Clancy books as well)
Douglas Adams: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Stephen King : The Stand
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
Bill Bryson: The Mother Tongue (and just about every other Bryson book as well)
Richard Dawkins: The Greatest Show on Earth
Michio Kaku: Einstein’s Cosmos
Michael Crichton: Jurassic Park (and all his others)
Cormac McCarthy: The Road

How could I have forgotten Bill Bryson

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

How could I have forgotten Bill Bryson

DUDE!